The One Left Behind
by Right What Is Wrong
Summary: [FE7] Long, long after parting ways with his sister, Nils contemplates the present world. (Oneshot. Nils POV.)


**Author's Note** : Strange musing spurred on by contemplating Nils post-game, specifically in the aftermath of Eliwood/Ninian A.

Takes place far, _far_ after FE7/FE6. Probably a thousand years later... at least.

* * *

Wherever you are, Sister, I hope you are happy.

This world is changed; the humans accept us back freely, if warily. There are dragons here, too - were they here all along? Are these the descendants of Arcadia?

Though Pherae is long gone, the legacy of your descendants echoes down through the ages. The songs tell of Roy, the legendary hero who fought off the mad king of Bern and his demon dragon, and of his line, which eventually would unite Elibe under one banner: amusingly, one rendition has him taking a wife from every kingdom, including Arcadia. I somehow doubt it's the truth. You were faithful... and Eliwood, confound him, was as well.

Forgive me for never quite warming to him as I should have. He took you from me. Eons alone wear on the soul. I still don't understand how a few short years, whether you survived just long enough to bear your son or witnessed a human century, could have made you happy.

And yet what did I do with that time? Served as oracle, though my powers were never as great as yours, for all that my vision was a little sharper; lived in dull discontent, until I convinced myself it was enough; witnessed the turning of the seasons uncounted times, and yet myself remained unchanged. An ordinary dragon's life. An existence in harmony with nature - one that scarcely bore a footstep of my passing.

The repercussions of your brief life with Eliwood have rewritten the foundations of the earth. They say there are efforts to reverse the changes brought on by the Ending Winter, so that dragons may truly regain their old stature. It would be nice, if that were so; it would be good to walk on the other side of the Gate without feeling death clawing at my lungs. But could such a thing ever have been in Eliwood's time? Would such a thing have ever been, had your son not been who he was, had his descendants not worked so hard for the ideals of unity, peace, and acceptance that they reshaped the world in their image?

Eve now, countless generations removed, I glimpse red-haired, blue-eyed men and women as I pass through the territory that was once Pherae, and wonder if a trace of your blood runs in their veins. This far diluted, it would mean nothing. Still... it's more than almost any of we dragons have left, isn't it?

We could, of course. That's the gift of a long life. We can change our minds at any time, and shake the foundations of the earth. But we wouldn't, would we?

Our father, lost to the sands of time... you must have taken after him, Ninian. I... can't imagine any full-blooded dragon being content with what made you happy. I couldn't have been. You... were more human than dragon, weren't you? I wonder, with the bitter wisdom of hindsight, if the long years weighed upon you... if you were secretly happy, when the time came, at the chance to live out a short life at a human pace, living and loving and dying in the blink of an eye.

I've tried to see what our father was like, just to have my curiosity answered. But the feeling which I have... I do not know why. But my oracular sense always tells me I'm better off not knowing. And it tells me not to wonder why.

They worship our mother in Ilia these days, I've heard. They claim it's a tradition unbroken from the time soon after the Scouring, when the starving, freezing people came to sorely regret driving out their benefactor. That surprises me. Did you ever learn about this, Ninian? Did they truly?

I can't ask you now. I don't know if I'll ever be able to ask you. The afterlife... Dragons are content, by and large, with leaving it a mystery. Those who have passed on, they accept as gone, and somberly take comfort in their knowing them at all.

Perhaps I'm too human, too.

It doesn't matter, I suppose. The draconic attitude is the most sensible one - I know this from long experience and observation. Time passes. The world changes. What can one do to steer the path of fate? One might as well attempt to control the tides. One can only watch and observe, and in time adapt.

Humans have a radically different attitude. Much has been said of the grief it causes them. So many break, like the waves upon the rocks; so many lives fade into nothingness, crying at the futility all the while.

Yet, witnessing this changed world, perhaps the humans have the right of it after all.

Sister... in untold ages past, you chose one road, and I chose the other. I had to. The Gate had to be sealed in that time, and for a long, long time after. You understood that; I know you would have come with me, if I'd insisted, even if your heart was breaking. It was the way it had to be.

And so I am here to witness this healing world of peace, and you are not. And... perhaps, if there is a true paradise beyond death, you're still happier there with Eliwood than you would be here with me.

Sister, I do hope that, wherever you are, you are happy...

But I still miss you.


End file.
